


Give and Take

by limesicle



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Ice Skating AU, Injury, Mostly Platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6763351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limesicle/pseuds/limesicle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke and Haruka both skate for the Japan team. Sousuke pushes too hard on a knee injury, and it results in an accident in the 2018 Olympics. Haruka doesn't consider him a friend, but still–he can't ignore a teammate. And anyway, are they really not friends?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> Ice skating AU is very important to me.

Haruka learns to skate competitively. He stops spending his time aimlessly carving lines into clean ice, and starts working on things systematically under the direction of a coach. It’s not easy. It’s difficult to take something you love and make it something you need to do, but he does it. His friends support him in their own way, and he really is happier skating than he would be doing something else. It doesn’t feel right. Every time he steps onto a rink with the stands full and the judges staring from their high table, he can’t help but wonder if he’s really supposed to be there.

 

He admires Makoto who’s dropped out of the competitive bracket to coach. He admires Rin for never letting his competitive spirit die out. Sometimes as he glides across the rink, he wishes Rin were there to challenge him to a race or see who can land more jumps in a row. He likes the peace and quiet though, too, but it’s a little lonely.

 

He’s the only skater now who uses this practice time. It used to be all of them. Sometimes he forgets Makoto won’t be off to the side watching or sitting in the bleachers videotaping his jumps so he can check them later. Sometimes he forgets Nagisa and Rei decided that skating was fun, but it wasn’t their career. Sometimes he forgets that Rin skates for the Australia team now.

 

Haruka slows to a stop, pushing ice with his front blade until his momentum dies out. He lets his arms drop to his side, fingers slightly stiff from the cold. He remembers seeing Sousuke tape his knee before he went to skate the long program. Haru bites his lip. He could have said something and had Sousuke hate him for it. And if he had, surely  _ this _ wouldn’t have happened.

  
Haru his ten minutes left to practice before it’s his turn to skate. The sounds of the paramedics rushing in and the overall noise of worry crushes his mind. 

 

People fall all the time when figure-skating. They don’t fall like that. Haru puts his head in his hands to block out those sickening images, but all he succeeds in doing is making it worse.  _ He’ll be ok. _ He tells himself. The paramedics said that, too. Maybe if Sousuke can’t skate, he’ll skate for him.  _ Haruka will skate for him. _

 

Haruka remembers tripping in his hurry to get onto the ice and nearly forgetting to take of his skate guards. He remembers the music still playing until it was abruptly cut off. He remembers Sousuke looking up at him with unfocused eyes. “I didn’t know you cared about me,” he said, and Haru didn’t respond.

 

Haruka bites his lip. He’s not friends with Sousuke, is he? They’ve met up outside of the rink only when Rin and Makoto plan things. And when they practice, they do their best not to collide. They sit and stretch before practice and after, but they’ve never gone on a run together. In the time they’ve skated in the same place, Haru has learned that Sousuke always puts his right skate on and then the left. He’s learned the particular way Sousuke loops the laces before he pulls them tight. He knows a lot about how Sousuke skates, but that doesn’t make them friends.

 

He’ll still run to the hospital the moment his scores are up. Sousuke is a member of the Japan team with him. It’s something he should do. 

 

_ I’ll skate for him. _

 

And Haruka skates. He enters the ice to applause and bright lights. The noise is the same as it is any other day, but it feels different. The audience quiets. The first few notes of his music play, and he moves with precision. His mind is far away from the rink, but he knows his program well enough to do it with his eyes closed. He lets himself be lost in the flow of the ice. He can feel each stroke of the blade firm under his feet. This ice likes him.

 

He cuts through it in smooth motions. He carves patterns into the ice and dances under the artificial lights. There are steps he’s supposed to follow: turn here, jump there, and stop. Haruka forgets those. He pushes further into the music and the ice below him. His feet take him where they will, and the jump combinations come when they want. He doesn’t bother to check if he’s done all of them.

 

Haruka stops moving when the music does. His chest heaves from the exertion, and he can hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He holds the pose for long enough, and then breaks out of it. He bows quickly in appreciation of the audience and leaves the ice at top speed.

 

He walks into the hospital with his skates still on his feet and his bag slung over his shoulder. Haruka stops at the door to the room he’s told is Sousuke’s. What is he doing? He lingers with his hand on the door unsure of whether to enter or not.

 

The decision is made for him when a nurse pushes past. She holds the door for him and he has no choice but to follow her into the room. His breath catches in his throat. Maybe he shouldn’t have come. The team was going to visit Sousuke later, and he should have waited to go with all of them. It would have been less awkward.

 

Haruka stands silently at the foot of Sousuke’s bed. The nurse rushes out of the room. There are other people to attend to. But it leaves the two of them alone. One unsure of what to say and the other pumped full of so many medications he can hardly think straight.

  
“Haru…ka?”

 

Haru hums in acknowledgement. He slowly walks to the chair at the side of the room and sits down. His fingers fumble with the laces of his skates, and it takes him three times longer than normal to take them off and stuff them in his bag.

 

“How’d you do?” Sousuke asks.

 

Haru hesitates to respond. “I…I don’t know,” he murmurs finally, zipping up his skating bag.

 

He raises his knees to his chest, tucking his bare feet under him. He’s still wearing the costume he skated in. Sequins trail down his legs and arms, and he clutches the team jacket around his shoulders. Now that he’s here, he wants to leave, but he doesn’t move.

 

“That’s so like you,” Sousuke grunts. 

 

Silence falls upon them again. Haruka shifts in the chair and stares at the floor.

 

“Thank you.”

Haru looks up. “For?”

 

Sousuke swallows, thinking about what to say. “You’re always around me, I guess. I just–I dunno. You remind me to do things like stretch my shoulder. You kick me off the ice when you think I’ve been stressing my knee too much, and I…I appreciate it.”

 

Haru stares for another second before turning his gaze back to the floor. “How many drugs did they give you?” He asks, hiding his embarrassment by sticking his nose between his knees.

 

“I mean it,” Sousuke complains. “I really appreciate it…I appreciate you.”

 

Haru hugs his knees tightly. He’s not used to compliments, and he’s definitely not used to words like these from Sousuke. 

  
“You’re welcome,” Haru murmurs, and he has to wonder if Sousuke can actually hear him, because says the words so quietly.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This basically fits into my SH on Ice AU (that you could find more about on tumblr). They get together at some point after this, but for now, you have this.


End file.
